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What would happen if we stopped emitting CO2?
This is asked of people who believe either that the environment is not warming or is warming totally or mostly naturally. If mankind were to stop emitting CO2 and other greenhouse gases, what do you believe would happen? What physical reactions would be in play?
* The environment would cool due to less greenhouse gas in the environment?
* Nothing, because emitting greenhouse gases do not cause greenhouse gases to accumulate in the environment?
* Nothing because there is no such thing as greenhouse gases or the greenhouse effect? It is something else that keeps the earth warm.
* Nothing because the greenhouse effect is real but only gases produced by God can cause the greenhouse effect; man is too puny to affect climate?
* Nothing because the greenhouse effect is either on or off: the natural amount of greenhouse gases causes the greenhouse effect but the amount of gases does not affect its strength?
* Very little because there are no positive feedbacks such as increased water vapor and decrease albedo?
* Nothing because the earth has some force that automatically cancells anything mankind does to it? What is that force?
* Nothing because the 35% increase in CO2 in the air since 1900 is too little to affect the strength of the greenhouse effect?
* Something else?
I am trying to understand you. If emitting greenhouse gases is not enhancing the greenhouse effect (or not significantly) , what do you believe would be different if we were to stop and why?
Thank you in advance for your honest and thoughtful answers.
11 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
If mankind stopped emitting CO2 then we would all be dead because we wouldn't be breathing. Our bodies would decay, releasing various greenhouse gasses including CO2 as we decomposed and when our bodies were all gone, then and only then would we be no longer emitting CO2. Nature would then carry on without us.
- Anonymous4 years ago
The temperature might want to drop extensively and the glaciers might want to be on the march again. Ottawa might want to be buried lower than ice interior of 20 years after the passing of "thermostat guidelines". no one seems to favor to well known the actual undeniable reality that the entirety of recorded human heritage has been lived in the time of an interglacial era of an ice age. shrink CO2 emissions and the planet receives that a lot less warm. that is a gentle stability, and one it is tipping in the direction of too a lot CO2 and has been for a at the same time as now. Our efforts at marketplace warmth the planet and keep us gentle, yet we are going too a concepts with it. Jack down the emissions in basic terms sufficient, yet not too a lot. both way, we gained't keep the ice from coming again. that is inevitable.
- Queen of ShebaLv 61 decade ago
Two of the biggest causes of our troubles are airplanes and chlorine gases used all over the planet, both of which are making holes in our ozone layer, along with a long list of other non human causes like termites and decaying wood..
the ozone layer is the protective thin membrane created by plant and algae lifeforms that serves the purpose of holding oxygen they release in rather than floating off into space. This gives us air to breath, plus the layer also gives some protection from solar radiation which can cause cancer on our skin.
Some scientists theorize there is an unconscious collective mind that orchestrates the happenings of the universe, our Earth, and more. Some say Earth is a living planet, and the many organisms that live here can be lickened to organs of a si;ngle body, (plants are like thelungs that breath, scavengers are like the white blood cells that clean up the stinkies, ocean is the womb of the earth, same salinity as ambiotic fluid, the ozone layer is the think membrance like the skin that keeps the organs in place... )
And as the inside of the earth cools, we unconsciously are warming it up from the outside to prolong an environment that will support current life forms. Just as when you are cold you shiver, you don't think about it, your body just does it on it's own because it has this inner wisdom.. or when you are hot you sweat not because you decide to consciously but because your body knows that some moisture on the skin will cool you down... and we can't stop shivering or sweating because we want to; we have to follow the instructions written into our genes.
so, perhaps the greenhouse effect that is being caused by termites and humans and plants in synchronization is actually an unconscious united effort by all the earth life to keep Mother Earth at a temperature that will support and allow for the survival for Earth ecosystems dependant upon a narrow temperature range to keep Earth's conditions right for incubating life as we know it.
Just like how we shiver or sweat to maintain an ideal temperature. We might be embarrased to sweat so we put on underarm deoderant but the body sweats to keep the temperature right. So we do things that will keep the temperature right when the inside of the earth is cooling down. And don't forget, the sun is also throwing out hot spots right now, which is warming Mars and temperatures too. During the mid 16t h century there was a mini ice age. the Vikings had to leave Greenland then because it was getting so cold. And the rats moved into people's houses for warmth, giving them the bubonic plague as they did so. And a whole slew of other things, too many to mention here.
Earth may be a living organism with us as one of her organs. And our job might be to warm things up when the crust of the earth is cooling causing fewer volcanic eruptions than during past earth history.
- Facts MatterLv 71 decade ago
I don't really qualify, but here goes:
If all human activity were to become CO2 and greenhouse gas neutral, global warming would level off in the reasonably near term.Over centuries, if I understand correctly, CO2 would fall for something like its preindustrial levels as a result of dissolving in the deep ocean.
I regard Dane's daily deluge of downthumbing dissing denialists as a badge of honour. How do I qualify?
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- david bLv 51 decade ago
It's truly amazing how not a single denier who responded to this question understands that there are sources of CO2 other than humans.
They probably also don't understand the carbon cycle or why the combustion of *fossil* fuels adds extra carbon to the cycle.
I do love the tree emitting CO2 when they die though.
And I agree with Paul B and Bumble Bee, the number of thumbs down that Dana receives daily is mind boggling.
I die a little inside with each thumbs down I get (sniff).
- Ed SmurfLv 61 decade ago
Nothing. It would take about 100 years for the increased CO2 to leave the atmosphere. CO2 to my understanding has a "life" of 100 years.
- 1 decade ago
I don't fall into the category of people you are interested in (nor does Dana). From my reading of various deniers, there would probably be some who fall into each of these categories.
Seven thumbs down within a few minutes for Dana?
Mmmm, sock puppets people.
@Baby Daddy - the question is not what would happen if all CO2 were removed, but if all human emissions ceased.
- 1 decade ago
There is no possible way to stop emitting CO2. When trees die and fall over they release CO2
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Plants could not carry out photosynthesis which would mean that they would all die, and therefore we would have no oxygen to breathe and we would all die.
- Dana1981Lv 71 decade ago
If humans were to suddenly stop emitting CO2, the atmospheric CO2 concentration would stabilize and very slowly drop over a period of hundreds to thousands of years. There's a good plot of this in Figure 1 of Solomon et al.
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/6/1704.full.pdf+ht...
The impact on global temperature would be similar - a slow cooling effect as atmospheric CO2 decreased over those hundreds to thousands of years.
http://www.realclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/NRCC...
*edit* to join the thumbs-down parade, just get on jim z's bad side. I'm pretty sure he's the one with the sockpuppet accounts.
Have you noticed that AGW realists tend to get exactly 5 more thumbs-down than up, and that -5 is the margin necessary for your answers to be hidden? Quite the coincidence. Denier trolls are not subtle.